According to Soros, Putin expected Russian-speaking Ukrainians to welcome Russian soldiers with open arms, but he was wrong

New Delhi: Russia’s attack on Ukraine on February 24 marked the beginning of World War III, George Soros, an American financier and founder of the Renaissance Foundation, stated this in an article, which was published by Project Syndicate.

According to Soros, this war has the potential to “destroy our civilisation”.

The article says that before the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping released a large document declaring a close partnership between the two countries, UNIAN reported.

“I was surprised that Xi is clearly giving Putin carte blanche to invade and start a war against Ukraine,” Soros said.

“Putin, with Xi’s backing, has gone about pursuing his lifelong dream with incredible brutality. Putin will soon be 70 years old and he feels that if he wants to make a mark on Russian history, he must act now or never,” Soros wrote.

According to Soros, Putin intends to become a tsar for Russia, and “having come up with the idea of a fix, Putin has clearly lost touch with reality”.

“I don’t know Putin personally, but I watch his rise very carefully and I know that he is ruthless. He turned the Chechen capital Grozny into ruins, and now he is threatening to do the same with the Ukrainian capital Kiev,” the financier wrote.

According to Soros, Putin expected Russian-speaking Ukrainians to welcome Russian soldiers with open arms, but he was wrong.

“He [Putin] decided to punish Ukraine for resisting, and began to act without any brakes. He threw the entire Russian army into battle and ignores any rules of war,” Soros said.